Our mission.
Dispersion of Darwin aims to visualize data with an experimental outlook that instigates a different form of interaction, allowing users to engage with data through gameplay, storytelling, and narrative. We contextualize the first distributed editions of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species and how the traveling of these books alone is a story worth telling. The hope is to holistically illustrate the narrative that surrounds these copies; showcasing the hands that held, marked, stained, scribbled, gifted, and cited each book. By capturing the segments of where some of the books have travelled, we investigate how these interactions contributed to the prominence of Darwin’s theories in modern science throughout the world.
The focus of our audience began organically as it did not start with a particular person in mind. Our project developed as an unique response to humanities datasets, and in return, implicitly targets audiences interested in exploratory and playful approaches to data visualization.
The focus of our audience began organically as it did not start with a particular person in mind. Our project developed as an unique response to humanities datasets, and in return, implicitly targets audiences interested in exploratory and playful approaches to data visualization.
On the Origin of Species
On a sunny day in Westwood, California, Professor Miriam Posner of the Department of Digital Humanities at UCLA was approached with a unique opportunity. Dan Lewis, the Dibner Senior Curator of the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, inquired about the possibility of the creation of a digital project from his work on an extensive database on a specific book. That book is none other than the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Particularly, Lewis’ work concentrates on the number of copies, whereabouts, past and present owners, and any alterations or edits made on the first editions of the Origin of Species. The potential project would be one that would utilize the database, parse through, enhance, and add data, and tell a story, both visually and technically, about the book that has undoubtedly changed literature and science alike.
To get started, one thing was certain-- to read the work itself! One resource that proved essential in understanding the Origin of Species. Darwin’s Origin of Species by Janet Browne illuminates the conception of the work from Darwin’s earlier theories and transformative voyage to the Canary Islands and around South America, his professional and personal journey in becoming an established scientist, the publishing of the Origin of Species, the onslaught of controversy and praise after its publication, and the further, ongoing influence of Darwin’s work in contemporary culture. Notably, Browne discusses the whirlwind of criticism Darwin faced for his theory posing the notion that, “living beings should not be regarded as the carefully constructed creatures of a divine authority, but as the products of entirely natural processes.” Additionally, this concept of natural selection was coined as an outright attack on religious values in the pursuit of discovery; Browne describes one scene from a meeting of the brightest names in the sciences as a “titanic confrontation between church and science.” As Darwin’s work continued until his death in 1882, so did his infamy in oppositions to his theories. Despite the perceived battle between religion and science, Browne outlines the persistent legacy of Origin of Species even into modern day, and relays the work as “one of the hubs of transformation in Western thought.”
To get started, one thing was certain-- to read the work itself! One resource that proved essential in understanding the Origin of Species. Darwin’s Origin of Species by Janet Browne illuminates the conception of the work from Darwin’s earlier theories and transformative voyage to the Canary Islands and around South America, his professional and personal journey in becoming an established scientist, the publishing of the Origin of Species, the onslaught of controversy and praise after its publication, and the further, ongoing influence of Darwin’s work in contemporary culture. Notably, Browne discusses the whirlwind of criticism Darwin faced for his theory posing the notion that, “living beings should not be regarded as the carefully constructed creatures of a divine authority, but as the products of entirely natural processes.” Additionally, this concept of natural selection was coined as an outright attack on religious values in the pursuit of discovery; Browne describes one scene from a meeting of the brightest names in the sciences as a “titanic confrontation between church and science.” As Darwin’s work continued until his death in 1882, so did his infamy in oppositions to his theories. Despite the perceived battle between religion and science, Browne outlines the persistent legacy of Origin of Species even into modern day, and relays the work as “one of the hubs of transformation in Western thought.”
Works Cited
Browne, Jene. Books that Changed the World: Darwin's On the Origin of Species. New York: Grove Press, 2008.
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species; Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. 1st Edition. London: John Murray, 1859.
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species; Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. 1st Edition. London: John Murray, 1859.
Photo © The University of Edinburgh